Anti-discrimination ordinance expresses fair-mindedness

It appears that Royal Oak may be subjected to another pitched battle over a human rights ordinance.

We hope not.

A group of residents, including some who fought against a proposed ordinance in 2002, have submitted enough petitions to force the City Commission either to repeal the ordinance it adopted late last year or to place the issue on the November citywide ballot.

The ordinance prohibits discriminating against someone for any of a list of reasons -- sexual orientation high among them -- in matters of housing, employment and public accommodation.

A battle in 2002 ended in defeat, with 70 percent of voters opposed to it. City Commissioners earlier had refused to enact an ordinance. Instead, they drafted one and placed it on the ballot.

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Opponents drew on outside funding and outside groups, including the American Families Association.

The procedure is different this year. We hope the climate is also different.

Commissioners perhaps could avert a contentious campaign by repealing the ordinance.

We hope they don’t do that.

Opponents could draw on outside resources, people and money, for their campaign.

One has said they don’t intend to do that. Some groups, we can imagine, may decide to come to the city to oppose the ordinance whether they’re invited or not, a risky development for opponents if their actions turn off voters.

What we hope and expect is that if it does go to a vote, times and voters have changed sufficiently in 11 years that the ordinance will be upheld in a landslide.

Polling and some elections appear to show that an increasing number of Americans are mostly at peace with gays and lesbians and with protecting their rights and institutions in the interest of fairness and justice.

As we’ve watched human rights ordinances proposed, enacted, rejected and repealed over a couple of decades, we realize that the ordinance language is just one part of the issue.

The spirit behind the ordinance is as important as the language. It explicitly tells all that the community intends to be fair-minded and that discrimination is intolerable.